Europe pushes Turkey again

11.05.2016

The introduction of a visa-free regime of the European Union with Turkey, until recently seemed extremely close perspective, again postponed. European officials have made strong statements in the address of Ankara and put their conditions. It seems that in Europe are beginning to understand the fallacy of the strategy of its relations with Turkey.

The European Parliament speaker Martin Schulz and the leaders of the factions of the Assembly decided to suspend the discussion of the dossier about giving Brussels the visa-free regime for Turkey. “Schultz said that we will start practicing dossier” only when Turkey will fulfill all, without exception, 72 the conditions put forward by the European Union Ankara, said on Wednesday the MEP from the Netherlands Judith Sippel. This is later confirmed by the official representative of the President of the European Parliament Armin Machmer.

“It is obvious that from the very beginning of an agreement on exchange of refugees on EU money were a dead end and doomed to failure”

It is significant that on Wednesday, Germany’s interior Minister Thomas de maizière with skepticism spoke about the possible signing of an agreement on the abolition of visas between the EU and Ankara after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to fulfill part of the terms of Brussels. “If our conditions are not met, there will be no visa-free regime”, – said the interior Minister of Germany.

We will remind, on the eve it became known about the cancellation is scheduled for may 13 in Brussels a bilateral meeting of representatives of the EU and Turkey, during which it was planned in particular to discuss the issue of visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens.

According to Maya Kosyanchich, representative of the head of European diplomacy Federica Mogherini, “the decision to postpone the scheduled Friday meeting was made jointly by Brussels and Ankara. A new meeting date has not yet been determined; the reasons adopted by the parties of the decision Kocijancic did not name.

The process has stalled

Thus, the European Parliament and European diplomacy clearly slowed down the process of liberalization of visa relations with Turkey. We will remind, on may 4, the European Commission suggested the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to remove visa restrictions for citizens of Turkey, if Ankara until the end of June will fulfill five remaining conditions for the abolition of visas. Among them, we recall, includes measures for prevention of corruption, the negotiations on the operational agreement with Europol, and judicial cooperation with all member countries, the enforcement of data protection regulation in line with EU standards.

The discussion also focused on the revision of Turkish legislation on terrorism. In particular, the EU requires Turkey to narrow the overly broad definitions of terroristactivities in the legislation to fit European standards. However, Erdogan said that his country is a condition will not perform.

Earlier, the Turkish leader criticized the attempts of the European Union to “put pressure” on the Republic in the matter of changing the law on counteraction to terrorism. Speaking on the issue of the migration crisis, Erdogan complained that the EU promised € 3 billion on the Syrian refugees is still not a dedicated Turkey.

As noted by the newspaper VIEW, Erdogan could split the EU on the visa-free regime for Turkey. British Prime Minister David Cameron, the foreign Ministers of Eastern Europe and a number of MEPs disagreed with the Commission’s proposal and were unanimous: the European Union should not cancel the visa regime for Turkey. Cameron, among other things, stated that the accession of Turkey to the European Union is impossible even in the next decades.

Until recently it seemed that “the process has begun. May 3, printed on the government of Turkey, Resmi Gazete published the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic on the abolition of visa regime for citizens of member countries of the European Union. At the same time mass media with reference to sources reported that the European Commission plans to approve the abolition of visas with Turkey in Ankara.

“Failure means worsening of the refugee problem”

As many refugees moved to Europastrasse of the EU towards Turkey was initially incorrect and now the European politicians are beginning to understand it, said in an interview with the newspaper VIEW head of the Center for Asia and the Near East Russian Institute of strategic studies (RISS), a political scientist Anna Glazova.

“The fact that Brussels is making statements, which sometimes completely contradict each other. This suggests that the EU has no unified and clear policy in relation to Turkey. In short, Brussels is torn and doesn’t know what to do with Turkey. Moreover, the application also related to the recent resignation of the Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, who was the chief negotiator with the EU from Ankara,” he said.

The analyst notes that the resignation of Pro-Western Prime Minister caught the EU by surprise. “This was followed by Erdogan’s statement that Turkey will not revise its counter-terrorism policies and legislation in accordance with EU requirements. Obviously, the beginning of an agreement on exchange of refugees on EU money were doomed to failure. In short, Turkey forced the EU to cave. She is currently working on a simple blackmail Europe. The lack of cooperation from Turkey to the EU means growing problem of refugees,” said Glazov.

Glazov added that Ankara can organize another flow of migrants from the Middle East and from Africa towards the EU. “If the EU will go back on their word and refuse to play by the rules of Ankara, the flow of refugees to the EU will increase. In this sense, the losing party in any case will be the EU”, – summed up the interlocutor.

Relations “on concepts”

Turkey is blackmailing the EU refugees, Europeans, in turn, don’t know what to do with it, says leading researcher of the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, specialist in the EU, political analyst Alexander Kamkin.

“Within the European Union there is an acute conflict between national politicians, such as Angela Merkel and the Brussels bureaucracy. Representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament come from the formal characteristics of compliance of Turkey with EU requirements. There are 72 points: a biometric passport, a moratorium or the abolition of the death penalty, freedom of media, political competition, etc. nationally oriented policies, in turn, want to build a relationship with Erdogan, so to speak, “on concepts” and not on formal grounds”, – the expert said in comments the newspaper VIEW.

The source added that formally the EU wants to achieve Turkey’s compliance with the standards must comply with all of the country who want a visa-free regime with Europe. “Visa-free regime means that the country trusted that it meets all safety requirements and legislation. Turkey at the moment does not correspond to this. Moreover, Ankara is blackmailing the EU refugees. The situation of refugees in General is not improving, as it is dependent on the mood of Erdogan”, – concluded the expert.